Mayetta Olson, 95, died of natural causes on Thursday, Jan. 29, 2009, at the Northern Montana Hospital in Havre.
Her burial was held on Friday, Jan. 30, 2009, at the Highland Cemetery. A celebration of life service will be held for Mayetta later this summer. Services and arrangements have been entrusted to Holland & Bonine Funeral Home. A resident of Hill County all of her life, Mayetta Odella Eggen was born Sept. 12, 1913, to Norwegian homesteaders Nelsine Ericsdotter Otternes and Harold Eggen on the family farm south of Inverness, Mont. Mayetta attended Cockeral Springs School, District 28, south of the family farm. She transferred to town school in Inverness in third grade, and graduated from Inverness High School in 1930. She attended Northern Montana College in Havre and obtained her teacher’s certificate. On Oct. 12, 1931, Mayetta married John Paul Olson in Great Falls, Mont. They farmed south of Rudyard, Mont., for a short time, and then moved to the farm south of Inverness. During their children’s school years, they moved back and forth from the farm to Havre. They built what was to be their retirement home in Havre forty years ago. Mayetta was active in three churches of which she was a member: Bethel Lutheran in Joplin, First Lutheran and Messiah Lutheran in Havre. She enjoyed crocheting and playing bridge. She, also, belonged to three service clubs: Sons of Norway, Eastern Star and Daughters of the Nile. With her husband, Mayetta spent twenty-one years travelling in their Airstream across the United States and into Canada and Mexico; they went to many Airstream Rallies. They, also, flew to Norway, France, Spain and Hawaii. Interested in geneology, Mayetta took many trips to visit cousins, uncles and aunts in Norway, Minnesota and Wisconsin. She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, John; one son, Wayne K. Olson; brothers, Clifton and Adolph Eggen; and one sister, Pearl Moore. Mayetta is survived by her two daughters, Marilyn (David) Green of Lake Park, Minn., and Gail (Frank) Searl of Havre, Mont.; one sister, Violet Brandt of Richland, Wash.; 10 grandchildren; 22 great-grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews.
